Pages

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Our family has always had strong Christmas traditions. Family is always the focal point. Every Christmas morning from the year I was born
and lasting 40 years, my parents hosted a casual Christmas breakfast for family
and friends. People would drop by on
their way to and from other places. We
served a continental breakfast: breakfast
breads, grapefruit, juices, coffee, egg casseroles in later years, and lots of Christmas
cookies.

My mother had a guideline for Christmas gifts for her
children she used over the years and I adopted:
something to read, something to play with and something to wear.

I do not know if my sisters will remember but in 1965 we
were living in Wheaton Illinois at the end of a dead end road in an unincorporated
area – a rural feeling atmosphere. Dad
was working hard to make his new business a success, traveling a lot, and Mom
told us (or maybe just me) that there was not a lot of money for Christmas this
year and not to expect too much.

I did not think too much about it until Christmas morning. Donna and I had a few gifts under the
tree. We each got a book and a new
sweater/skirt outfit. I do not remember
what Amy received, but she was still very young and probably had an outfit and
a book as well. After we opened the
gifts under the tree and from our Christmas stockings, Dad told us to go get
the stuff for breakfast from the garage refrigerator. He insisted that both of us go do this chore
together. Imagine our surprise when we
opened the door to the attached garage and saw shiny new bicycles with our
names on them sitting there! We were
very excited as the bikes would give us more freedom to get around and to get
to school. While it may not have been my
best Christmas ever, it certainly is one of my most memorable!

Friday, December 20, 2013

She was born Elizabeth Diehl on 27 Dec 1913 in Marburg, Hessen,
Germany to Jacob and Lina (Schraub) Diehl.
She had two younger sisters, Margarete and Hildegard. During the Diehl Family Gathering in
Butzbach, Germany in 2007 she met many cousins from other countries, including
Finalnd, Sweden and the USA. She still
lives in her home in Butzbach under the care of her nephew Alfred Häuser.

Friday, September 13, 2013

Those
middle or first names of family members that appear out of the blue could be
from relatives you do not yet know about, famous people, locations, or
someone's maiden name.And it is always possible your
ancestor simply pulled the name out of thin air.

When I read this tip it resonated
with me!I share a middle name with my
mother, who was named for her maternal aunt and godmother. All three of us have October birthdays.My children
have their own unique first names, but their middle names are after family
members.My sister used the same naming
convention with her children – unique first name, family middle name.

In
doing family history research, it is apparent that there were naming
conventions in many of my “branches.”
One direct line has 5 generations of Henrys, along with a plethora of
Samuels, Benjamins and Williams! We
also have three women in three generations named Merle in our family tree. Merle Davies was my great-grandmother Mamie’s
younger sister. (Mamie’s full name was
Mary Elizabeth Davies Kell.) Mamie named
her daughter Merle Elizabeth. Merle
Elizabeth then named her daughter Merle Jean.
The middle name Jean came from her younger sister, Sarah Jean.

Recently
my mother revealed how her daughters got their names in her Living
Story. It seems in high school my
parents discovered that the middle letters of their first names were the same. When
Mom found out she was pregnant, they assumed the baby would be a boy and he would
be Aaron. Surprise! I turned out to be a girl, so they stayed
with the middle letters and named me Caron. (The nurse in labor and delivery
warned her that I would hate her for the unusual spelling, but I like it!) During my mother’s second pregnancy, they once
again anticipated a boy, who would be called Donald, after my father’s
cousin. Turns out it was a girl, my
sister Donna, still named for her godfather Uncle Don!
When my mother was pregnant a
third time, the baby was referred to as Amos by all of us. When the baby was a girl, she was called Amy
with her middle name for her godmother.

My
paternal grandmother gave her first born son family names as middle names. My father was the second son. She named him Aaron Leon. Those names appear NOWHERE in our family
tree. She is no longer available to ask
the origin of that name so I can only speculate. She was a church-going lady and so perhaps
Aaron was a Biblical reference. No idea
where Leon came from. Asked my mom, she
doesn't know either. Another family mystery!

Janette
met with Mom twice to interview and digitally record her memories in her
Lombard home. I provided many family
pictures and documents to help stimulate Mom’s memory (she is 82 and still
pretty sharp!) for the interviews. Janette
used the family history and photos and also conducted independent research
about the places, people, activities and circumstances of Mom’s life. She also
encouraged Mom’s own writing about memories and messages she considers to be
most important. Finally, Janette melded it all into
a book almost 50 pages long.

My
sisters and I were anxious to hear what Mom had to say. While I provided old family pictures, my
sisters sent her questions they wanted answered and other suggestions. Even though Dad is no longer with us, there
was a lot of his information in the book as well. Mom and Dad had been married over 50 years
when he died and they had a lot of history together.

We
received the final copy a few weeks ago.
It is wonderful! Mom has read it
several times and we have shared it with other family members. Mom’s brother
Dick passed away in 2002. His children
were grateful to hear about his childhood through Mom’s story.

Dick and Carol c. 1935

From my
perspective, it was a great family bonding experience. I think Mom may have been a bit more open with an “objective
third party” listening and taking notes than she would have been with a
daughter. It stimulated discussions about other family members which never made it into the book. The younger generations learned about things
they might not have otherwise known – like as kids, Mom and Dick jumping on the
bed and breaking it. The Living Story is a great
legacy. We had copies made for all the daughters
and there are enough copies each grandchild will have one of their own as
well.

After
reading the story, we are already planning additional “chapters”. It was also noted that while Mom talked about
daughters and grandchildren, no mention was made of son-in-laws! We also decided we would like more pictures –
but then we are a picture-oriented family.

We as a
family agree this would be a wonderful experience for all families! Thank you to ISGS and Janette for this great
gift!

LivingStories.us is a member of the Association of
Personal Historians and the Association of Senior Service Providers. Its
principal, Janette Quinn, lost both of her parents at ages 55 and 60 to cancer
on September 17, 1973 when she was 18. Her personal and corporate mission is to
preserve families’ most valuable assets, the
stories of elders in their own words, before it’s too late. She holds a
B.S. in journalism from Northern Illinois University and an M.S. in management
consulting from DePaul University.

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Yesterday
I attended DuPage County Genealogical Society’s 38th Annual
Conference:Discovering Early American Roots.My first session was Jeanne Larzalere Bloom’s presentation Spreadsheets
101: EXCEL, the Genealogist Underutilized Tool on using Excel
Spreadsheets.I have always been a spreadsheet
aficionado, so I thought I might pick up some pointers.She had some good examples of how she
documented her research using customized spreadsheets.

In
her syllabus Jeanne cited Gary Minder’s www.censustools.com. So of course, I had to go check it out. This website has also been written up in Dick
Eastman’s newsletter. In the responses
to Dick’s article on Gary’s spreadsheets, there was one from Dae Powell of
Shoestring Genealogy. He suggested a key
spreadsheet was missing on censustools.com – one to track city directory
finds. Since I have one of my own for
that, I wanted to see what Dae came up with.
I was pleasantly surprised to see 22 forms offered for download on shoestringgenealogy.com as
well as a wealth of other material he has compiled!

I
reviewed Gary’s spreadsheets, which include more than just census sheets by the
way.I liked them enough I bought the
package of 40 spreadsheets.I may not
use them all, but it was a fair price for the work Gary has put into the
spreadsheets.Why did I buy these
instead of downloading the ones at Shoestring Genealogy?I liked the idea of having spreadsheets I
could actually enter data into on my computer – Shoestring is a download of a
PDF file.You will need a pencil or pen
to use those.Then how do I get them
back into my computer or manipulate the discrete data elements?

Everyone
has their own way of managing their genealogy data. One of these sites may have something that
will help you!

I found a
few people I was looking for in the database search, downloaded the form, completed
it and mailed it, per instructions on the web site, with my check. I was totally surprised to receive it back
with the documents in about a week! I
received a copy of the original Declaration of Intent which was loaded with
details I did not have before: the ship
of arrival, the ports of departure and arrival, place of birth and physical
description with “visible distinctive marks” (in this case a birthmark on the
left cheek).

What
I received in the mail

Here is the detail from the web
site:

The Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County Archives is home to more
than 500,000 naturalization petitions covering the years 1871 to 1929. More
than 400,000 of these records are Declarations of Intention, 1906-1929 which
were usually the first papers to be filed by those who wished to become U.S.
citizens.

Because the Declaration may be the only public record of an individual
immigrant, it is a significant source of documentation for genealogists and
scholars.

Also, taken as a whole, the Declarations of Intention document the
social changes of the immigrant experience during this era and so can be of interest
to scholars and researchers from many disciplines.

This database of Declarations of Intention was created thanks to a
grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC),
a division of the National Archives.

After 1929, the local Cook County courts stopped granting
naturalizations, and the task was given entirely to the Federal Courts. To find
local naturalizations after 1929, please contact a local branch of the National
Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Chicago is served by NARA Great
Lakes Region. You can find them here:http://www.archives.gov/great-lakes/.

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Nearly 70 years after the end of the Second World
War, a Holocaust archive in Germany is helping victims and survivors of Nazi
atrocities to find clues about the past -- and is still reuniting families. NBC
News' Andy Eckardt reports from Bad Arolsen, Germany.

Are there "empty" spaces in your family's lot of
graves in the cemetery? Is it possible that there are unmarked burials. The cemetery
may (or may not) have records of burials even if no stone was erected after the
funeral.

A
few years ago I was trying to locate the graves of my Primas Great-Uncles. I knew that two of them were at “the windmill
cemetery”, officially known as Mount
Emblem Cemetery in Elmhurst, Illinois.
I went to the main office and asked for the location of all persons with
Primas as their surname located in the cemetery. I received the list I expected, with one
surprise: Emma Primas, my
great-grandmother.

Emma Stroschein Primas

I knew my great-grandfather Paul Primas (Emma’s husband) died at the age of 46 years in 1906 and was buried inConcordia Cemetery, Forest Park, Illinois.When I visited the grave site there was space but no stone for Emma.I assumed that she was there with no marker.

There
was a child of Paul and Emma’s named Franz that died at the age of 2 years, 6
months of croup and diphtheria.He was also buried in Concordia Cemetery.When I inquired about
the location I was told that he had been buried in a special section for
children.That area had no permanent
plots, it was in effect leased.There
was no marker to be seen.

Emma
died at the age of 63 years in 1928, having lived 22 years longer than
Paul. She was left a widow with five
children to raise, so it seemed that perhaps a lack of money might have been
the reason for no marker. Maybe the
family planned to get a marker when they had more funds.

So what was Emma doing in Mount
Emblem? I went to find her grave site. There was only a cement disk with the number
of the plot. No headstone. Next to her space were headstones for Ernest and Evelyn Stroschein. Ernest, called Ernie by the family, was Emma’s
nephew, her brother’s son. Across the
road were Emma’s sons Frederick and Otto, her daughter Amelia (called Millie)
and Otto’s wife Marie. Fred and Millie
have no markers. In a different section
of the cemetery are plots for her other sons: Oscar (my grandfather) is on one
side of the road, and on the other side of the road are plots for Frank Primas
and his wife, both unmarked.

When I asked why there were no markers
on the plots for Frank and his wife, his son told me “they aren’t there”. They are buried in Missouri where they had
retired years ago.

I
am still left with more questions:why
is Emma in a different cemetery than her husband?Did the children not know or forget about the
Concordia plot?Why is she buried next
to her nephew and not her sons?Why is Paul's grave marker so large? Why does Emma has no
grave marker?

Some
lessons learned from this adventure:

1.Always
ask at the cemetery office for the people you are looking for

2.Don’t
assume everyone has a marker

3.Don’t
assume that because someone bought the plot that they are in it

Friday, January 18, 2013

I have mentioned
my 95-years-young cousin Gus before. He
had all the pages of his mother’s scrapbook scanned and copies sent to me. What a gift!
Among the newspaper clippings was an obituary “Death of Mrs. Samuel
Herbert”. Mrs. Samuel Herbert was born
Jane Lewis. The notice mentions that she
was predeceased by her brother, John Lewis, who died in Andersonville Prison. This was news to me – I had never heard this
before.

I checked www.Ancestry.com for John Lewis and found 2 possible suspects
in the Andersonville Prisoner of War
database but no exact match. There were
also a number of John Lewis’ named in the US
Army, Register of Enlistments database but again no exact match. So I wondered did he really die at
Andersonville or was he just a prisoner there?
I was suspicious of a newspaper account 30 years after the fact.

I went to www.Fold3.com and checked the NARA database of Civil War Pension Files of
Veterans Who Served Between 1861 and 1900.
There were two men listed as John Lewis that requested pensions on their
own behalf as invalids: John Lewis,
Private, Illinois, Infantry, Regiment 90, Company D and John Lewis, Corporal,
Illinois Infantry, Regiment 111, Company H.
Another request was from the mother of John Lewis, Private, Illinois
Infantry, Regiment 39, Company K who died at Andersonville Prison on September
23, 1864. This last one looked
promising, but was it really MY John Lewis?

I went to check www.cyberdriveillinois.comfor Illinois
Civil War Muster and Descriptive Rolls.
In the Illinois regiments listing I found over 25 men named John Lewis
on the muster rolls, including the three from the pension database. I was able to see (and save) the Illinois
Civil War Detail report on my three suspects.
This detail report includes Name, Rank, Residence, Age, Height,
Hair and Eye color, Complexion, Marital
status, Occupation, Location of birth;
when and where they joined; where and when they mustered in and out of service;
and remarks including notes about discharge and where they were taken
prisoner. I was able to verify that the John Lewis who died
in Andersonville Sep 23, 1864 was my 3rd great-grand-uncle. His remarks showed that he was “taken prisoner May 16, 1864 at Drury’s Bluff,
Virginia”. He is the first documented
Civil War soldier in my family tree!

Sunday, January 13, 2013

I was recently given this picture
and was told that these women are my husband’s great-grandmother and
grand-aunt. Possible names are Annie and
Mary Brennan. Do you know who they are?

Possibly Stephen Brennan's mother and sister

According to family
legend, my husband’s grandfather Brennan married out of the faith and was
disowned by his birth family. He then was divorced from his wife (at a
time that it was considered “scandalous”) and had minimal contact with his
children afterwards.

Stephen Brennan c. 1918

We were told that
Stephen Francis Brennan was born in Chicago December 26, 1873;
however, there is no documentation to be found to verify this. Several
inquiries to the Cook County Clerk have resulted in messages that no birth
record is found and that it possibly was “burned in a fire”. His marriage certificate shows his age as 32
which would make is birth year 1878. His first appearance in the records is in Chicago in the 1910 US Census, as a boarder in the home of Berjetta Marcusen, his future mother-in-law.

Stephen’s World War I Draft Card shows his
birth information as December 26, 1873 in the USA. That document shows he is a
motorman for the Chicago Surface Lines, is married to Anna Elizabeth Brennan
and living at 4242 Wilcox St in Chicago. He had three children with Anna: Clarence born in 1912 who died shortly after
birth, Charles Joseph born in 1914 and Marion Elizabeth born in 1917. Stephen is still with the family in the 1930 US
Census. He is not found in the 1940 US Census
in Moosehaven where he was living at the time. He is listed in the
Florida State Census of 1945 as age 73, retired with a 7th grade
education. Stephen Brennan died August 17, 1951 at
the Moosehaven Home in Orange Park, Clay County, Florida where he had been
living for 19 years.

Stephen Brennan in 1930s

Stephen’s daughter Marion tells
me that Stephen’s parents were immigrants from Ireland, possibly Michael
and Annie Brennan. He had at least one sister, Mary, who never
married. She worked in a convent on the
"north side" of Chicago but was not a nun. There were also
supposed to be some relations in West Chicago but I have no detail on that.
With such a large immigrant Irish population in Chicago at the turn of
the century, I am sure you can appreciate how difficult it might be to find the
"right" Michael Brennan with wife Annie and daughter Mary in
Chicago!

Saturday, January 12, 2013

I have always
embraced technology because I am a busy person and am always looking for an
easier, faster way to do things.Some
people call me a “geek” because I work with information systems, although I
work on the “people side” of the business.I always say I know just enough to be dangerous regarding hardware,
networking and gadgets.I do not want
gadgets for the sake of having them.I
only want things that are going to actually help me accomplish what I need or
want to do, which is to connect with more of my ever-growing family.Not just to put names in a chart or my
software, but to really connect with them as people.

A while back I
went to visit my 91-years-young cousin (first cousin, twice removed) Gus. This visit was made possible by
technology. I found him because several
years ago I posted my family tree on the Internet
at Ancestry.com and Rootsweb. A different cousin, Howard, contacted me via email about our family connection a few
years after my posting. He lives in
Atlanta. Our common g-grandparents are
from Pontiac, Illinois. Until he saw my
posting, we did not know of each other’s existence. We have pooled our records and he now has a
posting on Ancestry.com to which we both contribute. A different cousin, Pam, saw this posting and
contacted Howard. It turns out that she
is Gus’ daughter and they live in the Chicago suburbs near me.

I called and
made arrangements to visit with Gus and Pam.
I used a cell phone to call
and tell her I was running late and the GPS
navigation system in my car to find the house. I took my 3-inch ring binder for the easy
viewing of all the paper documents I have collected over the years and a spiral
notebook for notes. I dragged along my laptop computer with The
Master Genealogist (TMG)softwareinstalled. I also packed a USB external hard drive loaded with all the pictures and documents
I have scanned as well as images collected from various web sites (i.e. census
documents, draft registration forms). I also brought a small portable flatbed scanner that I purchased on another
genealogy trip that fits in my laptop travel case andthat hooks up to the laptop through the USB port. The scanner works with legal size items and
smaller. I have also learned never to leave home
without my digital camera!

When I arrived
at the house, I set up my equipment on the dining room table. It did not take much space, just a little
more than a place setting. I was able to
pull up pictures of our mutual relatives on a screen that was easier to see
than the original photos. Gus was able
to identify some people I did not know in the pictures. Gus shared his pictures with me and I was able
to scan them into my computer without them ever leaving his possession. Gus did
not have an internet connection, but if he had, I would have shown him the
family web site Howard set up. I was
able to show Gus how we were related with a relationship graph from TMG. We were also able to immediately change his record
in TMG when he told me I had his middle name wrong! After I showed him the cemetery listing for
his grandparents in Wisconsin that I found on the internet and their family
group sheet, he told me, “you know more about my family than I do!” We had a
great visit with a promise to have more.

On my genealogy tools
wish list is a digital voice recorder. I want to be able to record the stories and
not have to take notes to decipher later.
I will transfer these files to the computer and perhaps use transcription
software to “write it up”. I am also
considering a portable printer. It would have been nice to print out the
information on Gus’ family that he did not have. I have considered an Ancestry.com app for my phone for research trips,
but I am not yet convinced that it will be better than my laptop. I am also entertaining the suggestion Tony Burroughs made at a workshop I attended.
He suggested getting a cell phone that has GPS tagging capability built in.
Then I can take a picture of a gravestone with my phone and tag it so I
know exactly where I found it without an additional piece of equipment.

My portable
genealogy “office” fits into a rolling briefcase that fits in the overhead bin
or under the seat in an airplane or a small space in the car. I can take all my files and not find out that
I needed a different file which was still at home. Even five years ago, this would have seemed
like a fantasy. Isn’t technology wonderful when we make it work for us!

I had a great time presenting Where Did I Put Great-Grandpa? Organizing for Genealogists at the SchaumburgTownship District Library this past
Tuesday! My presentation focused on
organizing your genealogy information so that you can find what you want
when you want it. Tony Kierna, the Genealogy Coordinator at STDL,
videotaped the presentation and will have it available through the
library. Check his blog
for details!